I think the $ value of SBD has dropped some but it's still the way to go. Bittrex is showing the bid / ask for SBD at 7.90/7.98 as of the time of this post. If you have a $3 payout showing, then about 20-25% will go to the curators so that takes it down to about $2.25. the 50/50 payout will split half steem power and half steem dollars so you'll get a bit over 1 Steem dollar which is worth $8.
If you look at the value of the post right before the payout it's always higher than the actual payout because a portion goes to the people who voted on your post in the form of curation rewards. That's my understanding anyway. The value of STEEM vs SBD affects the amount of SBD vs SP you get from the 50/50 split too.
So it's complicated. But the 50/50 option still makes sense right now because SBD are worth more than STEEM is (STEEM is at 6.20 right now).